DENVER -- Nuggets fans have a man crush. Specifically, a Manimal crush. Oh, how Kenneth Faried gets Nuggets fans talking and texting and tweeting. "The Manimal" is just so crush-worthy -- he leads the league in hustle, he rebounds like he's 8-8, not 6-8, and his slams earned him a spot in the NBA's contest devoted to dunks.

But his defense at times can be offensive.

"When he gets in a defensive stance, when he's focused on the concepts of the game plan, he's important," said Nuggets coach George Karl, whose team plays at Cleveland today. "But being a young player, he gets attacked a lot, people go after him a lot, and he sometimes reacts poorly to that. ... As the game goes on, he gets better defensively, and I don't think he establishes himself early in the game with enough, maybe, focus and preparation."

There have been a number of games in which an opposing post player has a field day against Denver. Indiana's David West, for one, started a game 7-for-7. Chris Bosh. Glen Davis. Even Samuel Dalembert had a huge night when at times being defended by Faried.

According to Synergy, a stats website, Faried's defensive work ranks in the bottom 10 percentile in the league, which earns him a "poor" rating from the site, which breaks down every possession of every player. Faried is listed as "below average" defending post-ups, spot-ups and pick-and-rolls.

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He's much better in isolation situations, but overall, his defense is well below average.

Asked about his defense, Faried said, "I think I'm more focused on my defense because I want coach to leave me in for the fourth quarter. And I want to be able to have faith in my teammates when I say 'switch' and to be able to guard a guard or whoever is in front of me, no hesitation, no help. And then we can stay home on a 3-point shooter. That's what I'm trying to do and get locked in on, and also staying down in the stance a lot more."

Faried, 23, has spent ample time with Nuggets assistant coaches, notably Patrick Mutombo, in an effort to improve his defense. He watches film and searches for nuances. The second-year player, who has started just 89 games in his young career, has something going for him that most other young players have -- contagious energy.

"The energy can always make up for some mental mistakes or things he doesn't know about the game yet," said Nuggets veteran Andre Iguodala, one of the better defenders in the NBA. "But when you're playing against the tough teams, San Antonio, Miami, the execution teams, you have to think first. With him, he needs to simplify it a little bit. He has so much energy and wants to have a huge effect on the game, that sometimes he tries to do too much, when in fact, there are four other guys, when you're on the same page, that's more effective than one guy taking the brunt of the work on defense."

Faried's energy sometimes gets him in trouble. Foul trouble. He often finds himself in early foul trouble, which earns him a seat on the bench. But that same energy at times leads to offensive splurges, as seen in Denver's most-recent game, when Faried scored nine first-quarter points en route to a rout of the Bulls Thursday night.

"I think young players get into improving their game by scoring and putting up offensive numbers, and my whole thing is that Kenneth has as many skills to maybe be a very good defensive player," Karl said. "I know a lot of people compare him to Dennis Rodman -- well, Rodman was a great defensive player. He very seldom shot the ball. His game was rebound and defend. My whole thing is balancing Kenneth from a standpoint of what he can improve upon.

"On defense, you don't have to stop someone, you just have to do your job. Defense isn't a game of holding people to zero, it's a game of fundamentals and doing it every time, and if the schemes not working, we change the scheme and together we figure it out together."

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